Cable lasher

ABSTRACT

A cable lasher comprising a ringlike spool of lashing wire through which the cables to be lashed are passed. While the spool moves relative to the cables, the wire unwinds from the spool and spirally surrounds the cables. A pair of twisted straps mounted at the outlet end of the spool holds the cables together and applies the wire in contact with said cables. The lashing wire is made self-lubricating and the spool is made rigid by immersing the spool of wire in a bath of hot wax and by removing it so as to let it solidify.

United States Patent 2,822,146 2/1958 Ridgers Primary Examiner-Andrew R.J uhasz Assistant Examiner-David R. Melton Alt0rneyRaymond A. RobicABSTRACT: A cable lasher comprising a ringlike spool of lashing wirethrough which the cables to be lashed are passed. While the spool movesrelative to the cables, the wire unwinds from the spool and spirallysurrounds the cables. A pair of twisted straps mounted at the outlet endof the spool holds the cables together and applies the wire in contactwith said cables. The lashing wire is made self-lubricating and thespool is made rigid by immersing the spool of wire in a bath of hot waxand by removing it so as to let it solidify.

PATENTED JAN 1 9 I97! SHEET 2 BF 2 CABLE LASIIER BACKGROUND OF INVENTIONINVENTION:

3.185.444 issued on May 25, I965 is a method which is generally used atthe present time. This method, however, is especially foreseen to lash anew cable with cables which are already existing and installed. Theoperation, the structure and the functions of this device are quiteremote from the ones of the present invention. l

The mechanism described in US. Pat. No. 2,213,363 dated Sept. 3, I940seems to indicate that when the unwinding speed of the wire is too fast,certain difficulties may appear at the friction element. In the presentapplication, no tightening device is mounted in a rotatable manner aboutthe spool.

In US. Pat. No. 3,172,643 issued on Mar. 9, 1965 the apparatus may beused only on the side of the road because it is directly dependent onthe self-propelled truck or vehicle which must travel on the side of theroad. The lashing speed is also very limited because the boom adjacentto the truck has a tendency to vibrate. In addition,'the compensatorassembly 114 is used to maintain a tension on the strand 18 within veryclose limits. The equipment in this patent is very costly compared tothe applicants apparatus. it I The device described in US. Pat. No.3,208,727 issued on Sept. 28, I965 is directed to short transmissionpower lines and not for long lines such as for cable telephone leads. Itis particularly directed to electric power wires' extending between atransformer on a street and a building. Green, Jr. et al. must usebraking means constituted by a rubber washer or disc. In practice, thereis no type of rubber which is able to support such a wear so that thisapparatus does not enablea uniform lashing. The present application isdirected in particular to spirally wound nylon straps which arelubricated by a wax provided by the lashing wires of the spools. Whilein the patent to Green it is stated and illustrated that the end of theapparatus must be removed in order to pass the cables, the applicantsapparatus may be used without taking any elements apart.

In the patent to Weiler, U.S. Pat. No. 3,285,571, issued on Nov. 15,1966, a split rubber sleeve is used to guide the cables but the sleevewears out very fast. This apparatus is foreseen for short distances onlyas exemplified by the use of only one coil. The applicant's device willbe used in general with a plurality of spools which may cover miles ofcables without interruptions. Furthermore, the sleeve must be changedfor any variation in the dimensions of the cables.

None of the above mentioned patents refers to a selflubricating lashingwire as used by the applicant.

The cable lasher according to the present invention operates withouthaving the cables under substantial tension contrary to what is usuallythe case for most of the prior devices. A well known phenomenon whichconsists of the twisting of the cables when the latter are under tensionmay be easily prevented by the applicant's device. This twisting is veryannoying when another cable has to be added to the cables alreadyinstalled. There exists a danger of damaging the covering of the cablesalready installed. I

The fact that the present lasher enables the cables to be installed withonly little tension constitutes a considerable advantage because thecore of the transmission cable may comparatively be easily repaired.With known in contact the core of the transmission cable is tight and ifone of the conductors in the core needs to be spliced, it usuallyresults in a retraction of the cut conductor. Depending on the tightnessof the cable, the retraction may be up to 3 feet. If the core has littleor no tension as in the present invention, there is practically noretraction of the cut conductor and the repair is greatly facilitated.In actual operation of the present lasher which has a tendency toslightly pull on the covering sleeve of the cable, it has been foundthat some part of the core of the cable is under compression and thatthe cutting of a conductor results in the overlapping of the two ends ofthe cut conductor.

With most of the apparatuses already existing, three operations arerequired, two of which happen before the lashing of the cables; thesupporting cables must first be installed by holdingthe latter undertension. Then the transmission cable is installed under tension andafter, the cables are surrounded with the lashing wire. In the presentinvention, the first two operations are eliminated because everything isdone in one and the same operation. An important advantage of thepresent invention also consists in the fact that the lashing may be doneby only one man for distances such as 500 feet, two men for distancesover 500 feet, up to unlimited miles. This cannot be done with priordevices and this constitutes a saving in labor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention consists of a cablelasher for lashing together parallel cables with one or more lashingwires which unwinds from ringlike spools onto the cables which passthrough the ringlike spools. This lasher comprises an arrangement forsimultaneously holding the cables together and applying the lashingwires in contact with the cables. This arrangement makes use of a pairof supporting plates, two straps, each strap having both ends connectedto each plate, the middle portion of both straps being twisted over eachother and adapted to surround a portion of the cables and the lashingwires spirally wound around said portion. The spool of wire isrigiditied in a bath of wax and the wire is self-lubricating whenpassing through the straps.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a perspective view of thedevice in operation;

FIG. 2 is a perspective enlarged view of the device according to theinvention;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the device along line III-III ofFIG. 2;

FIGS. 4 and 4a are perspective views of adjacent rigid spools of lashingwire connected to each other; 1 FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view alongline V-V of FIG. 2;

v and FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view along line V-V of through thespool container with the lid partly opened.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. shows a cable lasher 10which is mounted adjacent a personnel basket 12 at the end of a boom 14.A strand or supporting cable 16 and an adjacent electric cable 18 arepassed through the cable lasher 10, extend over the pulley 20 and comeout with a lashing wire 22 spirally wound around the combined supportingcable 16 and electric cable 18.

The boom 14 is mounted on a truck (not shown) adapted for that purpose.The truck moves from left to right according to FIG. 1 and the combinedcables 16 and 18 are fed to the cable lasher 10. The truck moves along adirection substantially parallel to the direction of the cable to beinstalled and whenever needed the lashed cables are held to a post 24 byan appropriate bracket.

Cable lasher 10 consists of a container 26 in which the lashing wire isstored in the shape of ringlike spools, and a compression arrangement 28which holds the two cables firmly together and applies the lashing wirein contact with the said cables. The container 26 is constituted by acasing 30 which is preferably cylindrical in shape and a semicylindricalcover 32 provided for the insertion of the spools 34. A layer of foamrubber 31 is preferably mounted between the spools 34 and the casing 30.The foam rubber 31 is used to take up the small twoopenings 38 and 40 ateach end so as to enable the cables l6 and 18 to pass therethrough. 3"The wire 22 coming from the central part of the spools 34 is pulled bythe cables and automatically spirally winds around them? "T hecompression arrangement 28 consists of a bracket having' two oppositelyfacing plates or beams 42 spaced apart by a bottom plate 44 solidlywelded to the casing 30. The forward or free end of the plates 42 areconnected by a roller 20 having a deep groove for the passage of thelashed cables. As shown in FIG. 5, the strap 46 is fixed to theleft-hand side plate 42 and the strap 48 is fixed to the right-hand sideplate 42. The middle portion of the two straps are twisted together asillustrated in FIGS. 3 and so as to enable the cables 16 and 18 to passtherebetween. The two straps 46 and 48 are preferably twisted only onceand each is made of a strong nylon textile solidly fixed at one end by abolt 50. When these straps become worn out, they may be easily replacedat a low cost. The straps are held at the forward end of the plates 42by springs 52 so that the straps may take up any small change in thedimensions in the cables. Furthermore, thestraps are provided with abuckle 54 so that they may be adjusted for cables having variousdiameters.

The cables 16 and 18 proceed with the spirally wound lashing wire 22through the straps 46 and 48. The latter holds firmly the cablestogether while providing a pulling effect on the lashing wire 22 so asto lengthen the amplitude of the spiral of the lashing wire 22. At theoutput end of the compression arrangement, the cables are coming outwith the wire in contact with them. Obviously, more than two cables maybe lashed at the same time.

The straps 46 and 48 are not set to strongly compress the cablestogether or to tightly pull the wire over the cables. For instance, someknown lashers pull the lashing wire tightly and provide an amplitude ofthe wire of about 14 inches around the cables while the present lasherpulls only lightly on the wire and provides an amplitude of about 5 toinches. Such a light pressure of the wire and a small tension on thecables greatly facilitate the maintenance of the installation.

Although the cable lasher may be used for lashing underground cables orunderwater cables, it is generally used for aerial cables as shown inFIG. 1. Accordingly, the device 10 is set at an angle so that theunlashed cables 16 and 18 come from the ground without tension and passthrough the device 10 to be fixed at a distance above the ground. Inthis latter arrangement, the roller having a deep groove will facilitatethe outlet of the lashed cables. However, since the device may be usedin various ways and at various angles between the unlashed and lashedcables, a guard 56 is mounted across the two plates 52 at the output endof the cable compression arrangement 28. This guard 56 will be used as aguard against the possibility of the lashed cable falling off the roller20. This may particularly happen if the truck carrying the boom 14 musttravel at a distance away from the direction of the cables to be set.For instance, the truck may have to travel along the side of the streetand install the lashed cables towards the middle of the street or viceversa.

As indicated in FIG. 3, the guard 56 may also be removed from the pathof the lashed cables if it interferes with the smooth delivery of thelashed cables.

In order to provide a long continuous operation of the device, aplurality of spools 34 are assembled as shown in FIG. 4 by connectingthe trailing end of one spool with the leading end of the next spoolwith a clip58. Such an assembly of spools enables continuous operationfor miles of lashing. These spools are ringlike shaped with an open coreat the center and are made with a lashing wire 22 rigidly in spools soas to be self-lubricating when .it passes through the straps 46 and 48.The unwinding is preferably made from the center as shown in FIGS. 3 and4. The spools are set into the container 26 which has a cover 32 fixedto a casing 30, the casing and the cover each consisting of aboutone-half the contour of the cylinder so as to facilitate theintroduction of the spools therein. Such an arrangement also enablesremoval of the spools and the cables from the container simply byopening the cover 32 and unfastening the guard'56. This is particularlyuseful when cables have to be buried in a'junction between two aerialinstallations. It prevents the cables from having to be cut and splicedas it exists in the now generally used lashers. Snap locks 60 are usedto close the cover 32 on the casing. The spools 34 of lashing wire willgenerally collapse if they are not appropriately supported. It isobvious that the unwindthe wire of the spool self-supporting as well asself-lubricating.

The spools of wire are immersed in a hot bath of paraffin, .wax

, or similar waxy materials. Air bubbles coming from the spool i emergefrom the bath as the wax penetrates in the free space between the wires.After the spool has been substantially impregnated, it is removed fromthe bath, to let it solidify in a rigid form. This stable shape preventscollapsing and permits an easy, progressive unwinding during the lashingoperation.

The wire which unwinds is coated with wax and lubricates the passagebetween the straps 46 and 48. These straps being made of nylon textileretain a certain amount of wax between the threads which enables thepassage of miles of cables without replacement of the straps.

The spool container 26 is lined with a layer of foam r'ubber 31 and asuperposed layer 33 of nylon fabric. A slight pressure on the spool isobtained due to the foam rubber and an easy sliding of the spools fromright to left (FIG. 3) is facilitated by the nylon fabric which is incontact withwaxy spool.

The loading of the container is preferably made by adding new spoolsbehind the rearmost spools already inside the container. Thisarrangement will enable the remaining parts of the spools to be save.This is important because the wire which is usually made of stainlesssteel is expensive and should not be wasted. v

The cable lashing is obtained without creating any tension on theunlashed part of the cables as shown in FIG. 1. This lack of tension ofthe cables and the reduced tangential pull of the wire 22 enables thetwo cables 16 and 18 to twist only slightly over each other. Thetwisting maybe completely prevented by a cable leader. As it is shown inthe drawings, the support cable 16 must preferably appear on the top ofthe transmission cable 18. This is especially true when an additionalcable must be added to the one already installed.

The present cable lasher may also be operated by attaching the cables 16and 18 to a post 24 the device 10 riding this lack the combined cables.A man may carry the device from one post to another barely noticing thatthe two cables are being lashed automatically. When he has reaches thenext post, he then may take the combined cables 16 and I8 lashed withthe lashing wire 22 and fixed then to the second post.

The latter operational procedure may be made only because the lasher islight. Such an operation by only one man could not be done with thedevice to Eitel disclosed in US. Pat. No. 3,185,444 mentioned abovebecause such a lasher weighs about pounds. The Eithels device iscompared because it is the device which is generally used now.

The present cable lasher may be used for the installation of telephone,television, telegraphic cables or electrical wires.

The present device may also be fixed to a post ora tree while the cablesare pulled therethrough by an appropriate nylon rope. Joined with anappropriate leader cable to prevent cables from spiralling, it may alsobe mounted to a vehicle having a personnel basket or held by a tractorwhich can unwind the lashing wire over the cables.

The present device is very efficient and very cheap to operate becauseonly one man can do the work for short distances and no parts aremovable. Only the nylon straps must be changed but this is seldom and isdone very easily.

Two sets of spools wound in opposite directions may be adjacently set inthe container 26. Wires from each of these sets are spirally wound inopposite directions on the cables. This arrangement is preferred whenadditional support is needed to hold the cables together.

FIG. 4a illustrates two consecutive spools 34 and 34 wound in oppositedirections. The wire 22 and 22' of each spool individually unwindsdirectly on the cables 16 and I8 when both spools are pulled in thedirection indicated by the arrows A.

Cable dancing is noticed in heavy loading and windy areas. It may beprevented by the swiveling assembly of the cables which is obtained byomitting the leader cable and pulling the cable by an appropriate rope.

In the terms of the trade, the present lasher is often referred to as aprelasher because the lashing is made prior to the permanentinstallation.

Many obvious modifications may be made to this invention withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention. The applicant wishes torestrict his invention only by the scope of the following claims.

lclaim:

l. 'A cable lasher for lashing together parallel cables, the said lashercomprising:

a cylindrical container having an aperture at both ends thereof;

at least one ringlike spool of a lashing wire disposed in saidcontainer, the said cables adapted to extend through said spool and theapertures of the container with said wire spirally unwinding from thecenter of the spool and winding around said cables they extend throughthe container;

a pair of a spaced plates rigidly secured to the cable outlet end of thecontainer; and

adjustable straps individual to each plate and having their ends securedto opposite ends of the respective plates, the middle portions of thestraps overlap each other so as to constitute a passage to receive andhold the cables and the wire together.

2. A cable lasher as recited in claim 1 wherein the straps are made offabric.

3. A cable lasher as recited in claim 2, wherein the fabric is nylon.

4. A cable lasher as recited in claim 1, wherein the lashing wire is atleast partly covered with wax and the straps are made of a threadedmaterial which retains some wax from the wire.

5. A cable lasher as recited in claim 1, wherein the container is linedwith a layer of foam rubber as to apply a slight pressure on the spoolto prevent the latter from rotating.

6. A cable lasher as recited in claim 1, wherein a freely rotatableroller is mounted at the free end of the plates for facilitating theexit movement of the lashed cables when the latter are at an angle withthe lasher.

7. A cable lasher as recited in claim I, wherein the straps arelengthwise adjustably secured to the plates according to the diameter ofthe cables.

8. A cable lasher as recited in claim 6, wherein a bridging guard ismounted near the free ends of the plates and across thereto for securingthe lashed cables between said guard and the rotatable roller.

9. A cable lasher as recited in claim 1, wherein the spools consist oftwo sets of oppositely wound wires for simultaneously spirally lashingthe cables with two wires in two opposite winding directions.

10. A cable lasher as recited in claim 1, wherein the container isprovided with a cover consisting of approximately cylindrical portion ofthe container.

1. A cable lasher for lashing together parallel cables, the said lashercomprising: a cylindrical container having an aperture at both endsthereof; at least one ringlike spool of a lashing wire disposed in saidcontainer, the said cables adapted to extend through said spool and theapertures of the container with said wire spirally unwinding from thecenter of the spool and winding around said cables they extend throughthe container; a pair of a spaced plates rigidly secured to the cableoutlet end of the container; and adjustable straps individual to eachplate and having their ends secured to opposite ends of the respectiveplates, the middle portions of the straps overlap each other so as toconstitute a passage to receive and hold the cables and the wiretogether.
 2. A cable lasher as recited in claim 1 wherein the straps aremade of fabric.
 3. A cable lAsher as recited in claim 2, wherein thefabric is nylon.
 4. A cable lasher as recited in claim 1, wherein thelashing wire is at least partly covered with wax and the straps are madeof a threaded material which retains some wax from the wire.
 5. A cablelasher as recited in claim 1, wherein the container is lined with alayer of foam rubber as to apply a slight pressure on the spool toprevent the latter from rotating.
 6. A cable lasher as recited in claim1, wherein a freely rotatable roller is mounted at the free end of theplates for facilitating the exit movement of the lashed cables when thelatter are at an angle with the lasher.
 7. A cable lasher as recited inclaim 1, wherein the straps are lengthwise adjustably secured to theplates according to the diameter of the cables.
 8. A cable lasher asrecited in claim 6, wherein a bridging guard is mounted near the freeends of the plates and across thereto for securing the lashed cablesbetween said guard and the rotatable roller.
 9. A cable lasher asrecited in claim 1, wherein the spools consist of two sets of oppositelywound wires for simultaneously spirally lashing the cables with twowires in two opposite winding directions.
 10. A cable lasher as recitedin claim 1, wherein the container is provided with a cover consisting ofapproximately cylindrical portion of the container.